Of all the sites on the west bank, none can match the breathtaking panache of Deir el-Bahri (see below for ticket details). Set amid a vast natural amphitheatre in the Theban Hills, the temple rises in imposing terraces, the shadowed verticals of its colonnades drawing power from the massive crags overhead. Its great ramps and courts look modern in their stark simplicity, but in ancient times would have been softened and perfumed by gardens of fragrant trees. The reliefs that cover its colonnades and chapels bespeak of an extraordinary woman and dynastic intrigues.

Deir el-Bahri ("Northern Monastery") is the Arabic name for the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut (pronounced "Hat-Cheap-Suit"), the only woman ever to reign over Egypt as pharaoh (1503–1482 BC). A daughter of Tuthmosis I, married to his successor Tuthmosis II, Hatshepsut was widowed before she could bear a son. Rather than accept relegation in favour of a secondary wife who had produced an heir, Hatshepsut made herself co-regent to the young Tuthmosis III and soon assumed absolute power.

To legitimize her position, she was depicted in masculine form, wearing a pharaoh's kilt and beard; yet her authority ultimately depended on personal willpower and the devotion of her favourite courtier, Senenmut, who rose from humble birth to the stewardship of Amun's estates, before falling from grace for reasons unknown. When Tuthmosis came into his inheritance after her death, he defaced Hatshepsut's cartouches and images, consigning her memory to oblivion until her deeds were rediscovered by archeologists.

In 1995, the temple was used to stage Verdi's Aïda, which was a financial flop due to poor promotion and colossal expenditure, not least on building a road to the Nile so that VIPs could arrive by boat from Karnak, which has hardly been used since. However, dozens of coach parties arrive along the road from Dra' Abul Naga, making this one of the busiest sites in the Necropolis.

Tragically, in November 1997 Deir el-Bahri made headlines when 58 tourists and four guards were shot or stabbed to death by terrorists on the temple's Middle Terrace. The killers might have escaped in a hijacked coach if the driver hadn't deliberately crashed it near the Valley of the Queens and if they hadn't been chased by villagers, for the police took an hour to reach the scene. The day is vividly remembered on the west bank, especially by the donkey guides who witnessed the massacre from the clifftop above.

Ever since then, all the sites have been heavily guarded; at Deir el-Bahri a series of fences and checkpoints provides a security cordon. Tickets are sold at a kiosk just outside the coach parking lot; beyond the last security barrier, a free tuf-tuf transports visitors the final 300m to the temple.